Is the price of playing inner city football matchups worth the backlash?

So maybe the word backlash is a little too dramatic. After all, gossip is the only real ramification of two teams playing against one another and something questionable happening between the two. But believe it or not, some coaches are self-conscious about being talked about in a negative light. Call me crazy, insensitive or oblivious to it, but yeah, the games are worth the small chatter.

A week ago I had an interesting conversation with Adams County Christian School head football coach David King. After little birdies began to chirp at the notion of King’s unwillingness to play his former team, Trinity, King wanted to clear the air and give his various reasons for turning down Trinity head coach Zach Rogel’s offer to play. He articulated some fine points. To summarize them all up, King basically said, “Look I’m getting older, and I’ve battled everyone I could over the years, trying to schedule games against anybody and everybody around. I’m past that point in my life now. I have too much history with Trinity that it just wouldn’t feel right playing them.”

Now, it may not be the most appealing reason, but I buy it. I’ve seen old age soften people’s heart. Heck, just the other day Kobe Bryant got brotherly romantic with LeBron James after James missed a dunk. Would we have seen Bryant and James laughing and poking one another 10 years ago after something like that? I highly doubt it; after all, we’re talking about the Black Mamba. So to those who think King has a different reason — like he’s afraid to play a Trinity team that has most of its players coming back when his ACCS team will lose its three best players — I say that’s a mighty fine stretch. But that doesn’t mean I’m on Team King in this debate.

On the contrary, I side with the younger of the two coaches. Rogel, who still to this day is extremely close to King and looks at King as a mentor, is a hungry coach that wants to see those fantasy matchups take place. A younger King would be proud. And not so surprisingly, as a man who covers sports in the area, I’m on board with the idea. That’s why I always have games like Natchez High School vs. Ferriday High School and Ferriday High School vs. Vidalia High School circled on the schedule. Games like that create interest in the area and draw a big gate. Plus, if ever those teams have two goliath squads simultaneously, instead of arguing about which team is better, we can actually pay $5 or $7 and see which team is the baddest in town. Just think, what if last season’s ACCS team would have matched up against Cathedral, can you imagine the type of interest that game would have received? King and Cathedral head coach Ron Rushing are very good friends, which spins another dynamic to this argument, but for the sake of good football in the community, it wouldn’t have gotten much better than that last season.

Unfortunately, it seems as though I’m on the losing side in this battle. In fact, with chagrin, I learned Natchez and Ferriday will not be playing each other next year, not because of any drama, but simply because Ferriday is a 2A Louisiana school that has struggled opening its season against a 5A Mississippi school that has already played two games of their season. Reasonable.

So maybe we’re heading down a path where fewer area schools will play each other.

This displeases me. Perhaps it’s an age thing like King said. At the moment, Rogel wants to take on any and all challenges, and as a young sports writer, I can relate.

JAKE MARTIN is the sports editor for The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3633 or jake.martin@natchezdemocrat.com.